Goldman Sachs recently released a set of data that shattered many people's pessimistic views about the AI era.

Over the past 30-40 years, digital technology in the United States has directly created over 8 million jobs. Among them, computer-related professions have absorbed 6.927 million people, while emerging fields like the gig economy, e-commerce, and creator economy have contributed over 1 million jobs. More painfully, 60% of the jobs you are currently engaged in did not exist in 1940—web designers, data scientists, social media managers, cloud architects—these are direct products of the technological wave.

McKinsey's research is even more interesting. While the internet destroyed 1 job in France, it created 2.4 new jobs. This set of numbers directly supports Goldman Sachs' argument that "technology creates more jobs than it destroys."

But can this optimistic history be repeated in the AI era? That is the biggest suspense.

Goldman Sachs itself is not even sure. They predict AI will replace 6-7% of the workforce, which is about 90-110 million people. The question is, what is the actual number and type of new jobs created? No one can say for sure. The World Economic Forum claims that by 2030, there will be a net increase of 78 million jobs, which sounds great. But the employment reality in the US by 2025 is proving otherwise—monthly new jobs only average 32,000, a number that has already plummeted to a very worrying level.

This reveals a frightening signal: the transition from destruction to creation may be more painful than anyone has anticipated.